Preventing Cancer in Dogs

1  Breed.  Some breeds are more prone to cancers, such as Boxers, Cocker Spanials, and Border Collies.  Large Breed dogs are more prone to bone cancers, and darker colored dogs are more prone to skin cancers, as are many of the hairless dog breeds. 

2  Genetics.  If you are buying a registered dog, certain lines are more prone to problems,  you would have to do breed research on your own to deterimine this, a breeder and breed book could help.  Most Reputable breeders would not breed dogs of lines where cancer has been a problem, but their are plenty of non-reputable breeders.  Ask to see the health documentation done on the parent dogs. 

3  Spaying and Neutering.  Either surgery, based on the gender of your dog, will eliminate several causes of cancer.  A neutered male dog, has no testicles, therefore cannot get testicular cancer.  There are in fact several cancer risks eliminated or lowered with this surgery.

4  Food.  You probably didn't realize buy many ingredients in dog food have been linked or suspect to causing cancers in pets.  Two are the cheap preservatives BHT, and BHA.  Better foods do not use these.  The other huge contributor is "By-Products", which are (depending on country) beaks, feet, feathers, and can even contain cancerous tumors.  However, what makes by-products so bad, is they are preserved with a nasty chemical Pesticide "Ethoxyquin".  This pesticide has been banned from use in some counties, but is often still used in pet food.  It may not even appear on your ingredient list because it is considered part of the By-Product.  There are several foods that do not contain By-Products, but you may have to search them out at independant pet food supply stores, groomers, or livestock feedstores.

5  Household Chemicals.  If you use chemicals on your lawn, or on floors, they very likely enter into  your dogs body.  Dogs lick their paws several times a day, thus ingesting any chemicals.  Air freshening sprays will coat a dogs small lungs and can contribute to cancer if even by putting the pets lungs under stress. 

6  Age.  Nothing you can do here, with good luck your dog is going to get older, but this is definately a factor.  It is important to be aware that as dogs get older they are more prone to problems, so we need to keep on top of any changes, because if we allow a problem to get too bad before we seek Veterinary help, there might not be anything we can do for the dog. 

This is a Boxer, photo from Wikimedia.